Marcos hopes to continue, expand trade with India

President Ferdinand Marcos meets with Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in the Malacañan Palace on March 26, 2024. Photo from the Presidential Communications Office.

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he hoped to continue and expand trade in different areas with India after the Philippines imported 295,000 metric tons of rice from their country, according to the Palace on Wednesday.

In October 2023, India and the Philippines struck a special deal for the former to supply Manila with rice despite New Delhi’s export ban. Marcos thanked Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar during the latter’s courtesy call in Malacañan Palace on Tuesday.

READ: PH gets 295,000 MT of rice in best ‘special’ deal with India

“I’d like to thank you and please extend my gratitude to your Prime Minister [Narendra Modi] for the timely provision of imported rice that we bought from India. The very critical… a very crucial time since we are in the right now suffering the effects [of] drought,” Marcos told Jaishankar.

“We hope to do better and I hope to continue this trade with India, but not only in agri products but in other [areas]. The ambassador has been working very hard to promote all of these different exchanges,” Marcos added.

Marcos told Jaishankar that the Philippines is currently working on improvements to the agricultural sector.

READ: Bongbong Marcos lifts rice price ceiling

The Philippines has struggled to keep rice prices under control, with Marcos having implemented a rice price cap in September 2023. It was only lifted a month later, in October 2023, the same month that India approved its massive rice export.